Coordinated by the USC Center for Transpacific Studies (CTS), the Transpacific Studies Research Cluster examines connections and overlaps among American, Asian, and Asian American Studies through the analytic of the “transpacific.” Encompassing multiple and interdisciplinary fields– ranging from cultural studies and literary studies, to film studies, queer and gender studies, history, geography, sociology, political science, and critical area studies– the Transpacific Studies Research Cluster is committed to fostering innovative scholarship that builds upon yet challenges existing research paradigms, theoretical frameworks and epistemes. Housed in and supported by the Department of American Studies & Ethnicity (ASE), the Transpacific Studies Research Cluster has partnered with ASE and CTS to organize a series of events and guest lectures.
2017-2018 events
The Queer Transpacific Research Cluster will meet monthly to discuss recent books that are at the forefront of Transpacific Research. The titles selected for Fall 2017 are the following:
- Activist Archives: Youth Culture and the Political Past in Indonesia by Doreen Lee
- Ghostly Desires: Queer Sexuality and Vernacular Buddhism in Contemporary Thai Cinema by Arnika Fuhrmann
- Archipelagic American Studies, edited by Brian Russell Roberts and Michelle Ann Stephens
The cluster also plans to invite a prominent scholar in March 2018.
Past Events:
The Center for Transpacific Studies is pleased to report the following activities in 2015-16:
(1) An international scholarly conference on “Transpacific Re-Orientations: Religion and Spirituality” on January 23-24, 2015 which included seven scholars coming from other countries (Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, India, Canada) as well as fourteen based in the United Stares. This conference was held at the Center for International Studies at USC. A selection of the papers from this conference have been published in the Journal of Vietnamese Studies, in a special issue on “Globalizing Vietnamese Religion” in March 2017.
(2) A graduate student conference on “Memory, Moment and Mobility” on April 11-12, 2015 with twenty participants from five local universities. This conference was co-sponsored by the East Asia Studies Center at USC and held there.
(3) A scholarly symposium called “Towards a Critical Refugee Studies”, on May 25, 2016 with eleven speakers and artist-presenters, held in collaboration with the University of California, Riverside, on their campus at the International Studies Institute.
(4) A speaker series of five different presentations by the following scholars:
Annette Kim, author of Sidewalk Society: Remapping Public Space in Ho Chi Minh City.
Katharya Um, author of From the Lands of Shadows: War, Revolution and Making of the Cambodian Diaspora
Kornel Chang, author of Pacific Connections: The Making of the U.S.-Canada Borderlands.
Hue-Tam Ho Tai, author of Passion, Betrayal and Revolution in Colonial Saigon
Le-Ly Hayslip, author of When Heaven and Earth Changed Places
2013-14 Events:
During the 2013-2014 academic year, the Transpacific Studies Research Cluster supported guest lectures given by:
Professor Judy Tzu-Chun Wu (Ohio State University, talk title:“Hypervisibility and Invisibility: Asian/American Women, Radical Orientalism, and the Revisioning of Global Feminism”)
Professor Meiling Cheng (USC, talk title: “BX for CTS: Transpacific Cultural Politics in Contemporary Time-Based Art”).
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